This video on enshittification from The Norwegian Council is brilliant:
The term enshittification was created by Cory Doctorow to describe the process where online services and products deliberately decline in quality over time, and usually cost more. It is an idea totally embraced by AI.
This is extractive capitalism at work. We all pay the price.
Hat tip: Anne S.
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Modern life debunked in 4 minutes.
Superb.
Cory Doctorow makes all his books available online for free. If you like sci-fi with a background of social commentary, then look then up.
His books generally pick up something like social media, digital immortality, 3d printing, bio hacking, etc, often a couple of elements in one book, and extrapolates where that might lead.
I admit I am nit a sci fi fan.
Just happy you’re healing up & have come back!
Thanks
Give me time
Great video. Perhaps this should be Reforms slogan – as they will certainly make everyone’s lives shitty if they ever get in :O).
On a separate note, here’s wishing you well, Richard
Thanks
The Norwegian Consumer Council (Forbrukerrådet) is a bit like a government version of Which? and was set up in 1953, it sits within the Dept of Children and Families. I came across it when I read of their letter to the EU about a fairer technological future, their Breaking Free project, more here including interview with Doctorow… https://www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree/
Thank you
Thank you for adding this video Anne!
Really anchors the synonym for me!
Cory will be at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August, I’m really looking forward to seeing him there. But I think there’s a second non-human force at work that will destroy enshittification: simplification. The decline in easy-to-get fossil fuels and lack of an alternative that’s easier to access in large is already pushing us to simpler ways of doing things, and simpler reduces the opportunities for enshittification. Not that simplification is a good thing overall, but it has some benefits.
Couple of good people on simplification:
Tim Morgan’s blog Surplus Energy Economics: https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/
Nate Hagens podcast The Great Simplification: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/podcast/episodes
Thank you.
Both are good
Brilliant !
been saying similar for years neoliberals have the reverse Midas touch everything they touch turns to shit.
Skype – not bad, I paid for it, good & easy to use. Microshaft buys it & shuts it down (cos it competed with “Teams” – which is truly shit).
Enshittification.
BTW: anybody interested in starting a Skype look-alike?
Anything but f**king whatsapp
Superb – but can you see LINO publishing something similar – no way. I will be spreading it about,
Do!
The video is both funny and incredibly sad. We have the ability to make good things, but appliances that once lasted years now only last a few. It’s both costly to us and our environment. And people are sold things they don’t really need that leave them in debt and struggling financially when they could have happily lived without whatever it was. I don’t know what else to say other than no British government body would ever produce such a video. Here the modern equivalent of Monty Python would have to produce it.
Much to agree with
Built in obsolescence. I remember my brother telling me about this some 50+ years ago.
It is so terribly immoral but who teaches morals any longer?
Interesting article and response here
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/226378/why-has-bmw-disabled-features-on-my-used-car-unless-i-pay-?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Ask%20Honest%20John%20-%20Latest%20Questions&utm_content=Weekly%20Ask%20Honest%20John%20-%20Latest%20Questions+CID_79e500a0f716ef22ffb83fa6a81f7a71&utm_source=campaign%20monitor&utm_term=Why%20has%20BMW%20disabled%20features%20on%20my%20used%20car%20unless%20I%20pay
That’s enshittification.
Pure rent seeking behaviour.
Here are some Deshittification projects:
(NB: May often require resources not available to the majority, and facilities that are getting thin on the ground, so don’t feel guilty if you can’t do all of them due to personal circumstances.)
General principles:
Buy pre-loved, not new.
Buy, don’t rent or lease.
Ignore heavily advertised products & services.
Ignore “smart/networked” products (Smart doorbells, speakers, toasters, cars world cup footballs).
Maintain, service and repair things till they are irreparably broken, then replace – if needed.
Cultivate local repair services and avoid extended warranties.
Spend less irreplaceable life hours on hold, on customer service calls, or trying to acces chatbots, and use more “Letter before Action” threats by snail mail to Head Office/CEO.
Spend your money locally.
Specific examples:
Dump Micro$oft for Linux and FOSS (Free Open Source Software). Same for Google, Amazon and Meta.
Use multiple IDs for sign-ins, and never sign-in to any third-party organistion using google or facebook credentials.
Substitute owned home digital storage for leased corporate cloud.
Buy an “expensive” printer with refillable ink tanks.
Delete your browsing data every time.
Ignore all products that are tastefully displayed near the checkout.
Buy the loss leader, then leave the shop.
Avoid “loyalty” (tracking & targetting) cards. The marketig will cost more than the discount.
Avoid being forced onto the “app”, it’s usually crap.
Complain in a way that consumes THEIR time and resources, not yours.
Invest in your local traders and small businesses, you will miss them when Amazon have put them out of business.
Try not to get as cynical as me.
I like that list and live by some of iot
Surely enshittification is a sign that a properly functioning free market economy is not there. We are told that free markets drive innovation, are efficient and promote competition on price and quality. Clearly this isn’t happening.
It is a sign of rent extraction.
27.6.26
Wishing you a full and speedy recovery Richard. Big thanks for all you do and all you are.
Derek Timmins
Thanks
“extractive capitalism” Isn’t the first word redundant?
A perfect term for how I feel about over reliance on technology to communicate.